Welcome to the Education Blog of Carla Ranger - Former District 6 Trustee - Dallas Independent School District - DISD

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Dallas ISD 45 Minute teacher extension adopted on January 26, 2012

On Thursday, January 26, 2012, the same evening 11 schools were closed and citizens were denied their right to participate in a Dallas ISD board meeting, Dallas ISD Trustees voted 5-3 to extend the teacher day by 45 minutes. Voting "Yes" to add 45 minutes

I did not vote on this matter because I remained in the auditorium when the board meeting was arbitrarily changed to the small board room in a manner that appeared to violate Board policy, Robert's Rules of Order and the Texas Open Meetings Act.

Teachers have been complaining about this 45 minute extension of their day since January 26, 2012.

I repeatedly requested that this item be placed on the agenda. My requests were ignored by Board President Lew Blackburn.

I would not have voted for the change on January 26, 2012 but the result would have been the same - 5-4 instead of 5-3.

A Teacher's Creed

"In the classroom on the first day of a new school year, I am eager to meet my students. I have rehearsed my greeting and first day’s remarks, but no matter how many years I’ve prepared for this procedure, it’s always new. My heart pumps a bit harder, faster; I feel adrenaline like an athlete, or like an actor, or maybe like a novice public speaker. It’s a marvelous feeling, this first day, because I know that something special is going to happen, and I know it because I’ve experienced it before and I know that I will experience it every time I meet a new class throughout my venerable career. And then they’re seated before me and I smile at this special feeling. This is an assembly of students, yes. But there’s so much more, because each of these young persons is more than just a student entrusted to me. Each of these students has a story to tell, a lifetime, however brief, of experiences, a history in volumes whose richness and depth I can barely begin to fathom. And so as I absorb the first glimpse of these young charges, I must appreciate the extent of my responsibility, of the privilege I’ve accepted in presenting these young souls my special knowledge. In offering them my talent and passion, I am adding an enormous array of new bright stars to the vast firmament of their minds, stars that will never have time to fade in their lifetimes. I will be part of their story. And I know that each of them will always be part of mine. And that’s a good feeling, a feeling that is perpetually renewed, revisited, and rewritten in A Teacher’s Creed."